THE FEAR OF THE DODGERS:
Since the Los Angeles Dodgers improved their already 100-win roster by adding Shohei Ohtani, Tyler Glasnow, and Yoshinobu Yamamoto, the MLB world has been freaking out that the Dodgers are ruining baseball by creating a super-dynasty. However, Steve Cohen and his Mets have taught us that money doesn’t win championships in baseball. After all, there’s no MLB salary cap for a reason. Last offseason, the New York Mets used money to improve their roster, enlarging their payroll by over 75 million dollars. But unlike their payroll, their win total dropped, and they missed the playoffs.
The truth is that baseball is a unique sport. In baseball, you must account for several attributes to build a winning team. There is one team that in my opinion is built perfectly and scares me more than the Dodgers. Said team is the Texas Rangers.
HOW THEY WON THE 2023 WORLD SERIES:
In 2023, the Texas Rangers' pitching staff ranked 10th in the American League with an ERA of 4.28, however, the team somehow won 90 games, tied for 3rd in the AL. The explanation is that Texas was the top-ranked team in the AL in every major hitting category (batting average, home runs, runs batted in, runs scored, on-base percentage, slugging, and hits). If buying all the best batters didn’t help the Mets create a super-lineup, how did the Rangers do it?
They did it by finding the single most impactful analytic and acquired players who specifically do this well. Said analytic is “hard-hit balls”. Baseball Savant defines “hard-hit balls” as balls that come off the bat at above 95 miles per hour. If you consistently hit the ball hard, good things will happen! Texas led the American League with 1,762 “hard-hit balls”, 51 ahead of the second-place Baltimore Orioles. The Rangers did so by signing Marcus Semien and Corey Seager ahead of the 2022 season. In their most recent full seasons before hitting free agency, both Semien and Seager ranked in the top 2 at their position in the number of “hard hit balls”.
Their hitting is what got the Rangers to the playoffs, but what carried Texas in the playoffs was the way they built their pitching staff. The current MLB playoff format is built of short series and contains too many off days. Teams can abuse that by making sure that their top 2 starters can beat the other team’s top 2 starters. If you can have your top 2 guys outpitch the opponent's top 2 guys in 2 out of every 3 games, you will win the series, even if the opponent’s roster is far superior to yours. Ahead of the 2023 season, Texas acquired their two guys, Jacob deGrom and Nathan Eovaldi. Jacob deGrom has been one of, if not the best pitcher in the MLB since 2014, with a career ERA of 2.53 and two Cy Young awards. While Nathan Eovaldi isn’t as good, the righty is unhittable in big games. Eovaldi has 9 career playoff wins, 2 of which came in the World Series. After deGrom went down with a season-ending elbow injury, the Rangers traded for Jordan Montgomery. Monty stepped up in the playoffs, winning 3 games and forcing 3 “no decisions”. Montgomery is currently a free agent, however, Texas has shown interest in bringing him back. They do expect to have Jacob deGrom next year but he’s very injury prone. It is most likely that they’ll have at least one out of the two for the 2024 playoffs.
THE REASONS WHY TEXAS WILL ONLY GET BETTER:
Coming off a World Series win in 2023, the Texas Rangers are eager to defend their throne. I believe the Rangers will only continue improving for a handful of reasons. Here are the most notable ones:
1. JACOB DEGROM:
As I previously mentioned, “Ahead of the 2023 season, Texas acquired their two guys, Jacob deGrom and Nathan Eovaldi. Jacob deGrom has been one of, if not the best pitcher in the MLB since 2014, with a career ERA of 2.53 and two Cy Young awards.” The Rangers planned on deGrom playing a large role in their rotation, but he got hurt after only 6 games. Despite not having their ace, Texas proceeded to go 75W-60L and win the World Series without deGrom. Adding such a weapon to a team that already won the World Series, will be lethal. Just imagine how many games they can win if they continue producing elite amounts of “hard-hit balls” and their pitching staff starts clicking…
2. THE VANDY BOYS:
In 2021, two pitchers from Vanderbilt University took over college baseball. The two pitchers were Jack Leiter, the son of Hall-of-Fame southpaw, Al Leiter, and Kumar Rocker, the son of former NFL star Tracy Rocker. Jack Leiter and Kumar Rocker racked up 25 wins in 38 starts while both struck out 179 batters and posted sub-3 ERAs. The two tore right through the college baseball World Series and led Vandy to their 5th championship.
In the following MLB draft, the Texas Rangers selected Jack Leiter with the second overall pick. Not a long time later, the New York Mets selected Kumar Rocker with the tenth overall pick. The two were supposed to be the next generations’ great rivalry, baseball’s version of Brady versus Manning, until Rocker failed his physical test with the Mets. Due to multiple concerns regarding his right arm, the Mets refused to sign their first-round pick’s contract.
The very next year, after Jack Leiter vouched for him, the Rangers drafted Kumar Rocker and signed him. The Rangers somehow ended up with the two best pitchers in college baseball. Rocker’s right arm did require Tommy John surgery, which is no surprise. He’s only 24 years old and will have plenty of time to recover. Now that the concerns that scared away the Mets have been dealt with, the future is bright for Kumar Rocker. Rocker is currently the Rangers’ ninth-ranked prospect, and his ETA is 2025. Meanwhile, Jack Leiter has been everything the Rangers expected, he’s their fifth-ranked prospect and hopes to make his big league debut in this upcoming season. Between deGrom, Leiter, and Rocker, the Rangers should have an incredible pitching rotation for years to come.
3. WYATT LANGFORD:
In the 2023 college baseball season, Florida’s right-handed outfielder Wyatt Langford made a name for himself by leading the Gators within one game of their 6th College Baseball World Series win. In 64 games, Langford put up a ridiculous slash line of 373/498/784, while hitting 21 home runs and knocking in 57 RBIs. In total his OPS was 1.282 (for the non-baseball nerds: OPS generally measures a player’s hitting from 0.000 to 1.000).
In the following MLB draft, the Texas Rangers selected Wyatt Langford with the fourth overall pick. Langford was originally assigned to the Rangers’ rookie ball team like most fresh draft picks are. However, after only 3 games, the Rangers realized that rookie ball wasn’t challenging Langford, so to maximize the rate of his improvement, they moved him up to A+. However, after only 24 games, the Rangers realized that A+ wasn’t challenging him either, so they moved him up to AA. In 12 games in AA, Langford hit for an OPS of 1.280 (Remember, normal people don’t usually break 1.000), so naturally, he was moved up to AAA, the last level before the MLB. Most prospects take around 2 years to reach AAA, but Wyatt Langford only took 6 weeks. In the 5 games that Langford had time to play before the conclusion of the 2023 AAA season, he still looked like a man amongst children, hitting for an OPS of 1.065.
I’m aware that every high-ranked prospect gets hyped up as if he’ll be the next Mike Trout, but I think the Wyatt Langford hype might be real. Every hyped-up prospect calms down when they begin facing the best of the best in the MLB instead of the rejects in the minors, however, every time Wyatt Langford has faced better competition, he only seems to do more damage. If Wyatt Langford is legit, adding him to the Rangers’ lineup, which’s already the best in the AL, will make them unstoppable.
HONORABLE MENTIONS:
-The Rangers’ manager, Bruce Bochy is one of the most accomplished playoff managers of all time. Bochy’s playoff record is 57W-37L, with 5 Pennants and 4 World Series wins.
-The Rangers were boosted in the playoffs by their top prospect, Evan Carter. Carter was great in the final stretch of the regular season and will be a big-time contributor in his first full season in 2024. *Carter is only an honorable mention because we’ve already seen his impact.
THE DYNASTY:
Baseball is an unpredictable game, yet I’m going to attempt to make a prediction. I predict that over the next decade, the Texas Rangers will have more success than the Los Angeles Dodgers. Texas is built right, with analytics, and their plan is continuous while the Dodgers are just throwing money at people. So, if you’re going to freak out that one team is ruining baseball by creating a super-dynasty, talk about the Texas Rangers.
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